Okay- so my mother has a Samsung phone with the MediaNet plan on it. If I were to get a 3G iPhone to replace my original iPhone (and thus bump up my monthly cost by $15/mo.-damn you, AT&T!!) could she just put her SIM in my old phone and go on her merry way?

Or could I get my wife a new (refurbed) iPhone 3G 16GB to replace her 8GB and pass that on down to my mother and let her use that with her SIM?

This is epic fail. My wife and I spent most of the night on the phone with AT&T to transfer her phone over my account so we could do FamilyTalk + upgrade her RAZR to an iPhone and now that her phone is on my account no iPhones show up as upgrade options. In fact, no iPhones show up as upgrade options for my old iPhone. This after I explained the situation and what we wanted to do to each of the _four_ AT&T representatives that I talked to tonight and was assured that it would work.

The stores can't order refurbs, the people on the phone can't order them and no one knows why it's not available when we try and do an upgrade. So, unless something magical happens and we can upgrade to an iPhone we just paid the transfer fee and got locked into an 11 month contract for her (off contract) phone for nothing.

I think the article is incorrect in saying that adding AppleCare to a AT&T-refurbished iPhone (90 day warranty) results in two years of coverage. AppleCare for iPhone extends the one-year warranty on a new iPhone to two years. That's a one year extension. One would expect the same to apply to an AT&T refurb: Adding AppleCare would extend the warranty for an extra year. Anybody know otherwise?